Ray Romano's Cashflow From 'Everybody Loves Raymond' Is Still Going Strong, Over 15 Years Later (2025)

For nearly 10 years, Everybody Loves Raymond was a rating winner on Monday nights. The successful show consistently beat out the number of folks watching Monday Night Football and would even rival the number of viewers that Friends consistently had week after week.

Given the success of the sitcom, fans were surprised when the announcement was made that the show was coming to an end. However, the desire to keep a consistent quality and funny show began to take its toll on writers and Ray Romano, himself. As such, the showrunner, Phil Rosenthal, who eventually went on to have a docuseries on Netflix, saw the writing on the wall and determined it was time to pull the plug while the ratings were still sky-high.

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In the years since, Romano is still enjoying the fruits of his labor from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s, a sign that points to just how loyal fans remain to the show, decades after it first premiered.

Ray Romano Was The Star Of 'Everybody Loves Raymond'

When Everybody Loves Raymond started, it was put into the Friday night spot of death. The ratings were not stellar, but there was enough of a following that executives decided to move the sitcom to Monday night, believing that if it could best Monday Night Football, the series could be a winner.

As it turns out, the bet paid off and Everybody Loves Raymond became a success. However, it was because of the authenticity of the storylines and the characters that the show flourished, and at the helm was Romano.

"I want to keep it real, keep it organic, but little by little, Ray Barone is becoming his own freak." Romano explained. "We originally had a contest of who was stupider, Ray Romano or Ray Barone. Ray Barone is winning now."

It was this dedication to keeping the storylines within the family rather than branching off to tell the stories of less integral cast members that built the show that once struggled, into a success.

"We thought we were going to be canceled," Romano stated, "and then no one was watching, and then a couple of people were watching, and then more, and then we didn't get nominated (for an Emmy), and then we got nominated and nobody won, and now we got nominated and one person won, but we still feel like we are fighting against not enough notoriety."

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It was the growing legion of fans that ultimately kept the writers, including Romano, true to their original vision of the show. As a result of this, it increased the payday for the cast and crew, of which Romano benefited greatly.

Ray Grew His Net Worth With A $155 Million Salary From The Sitcom

Romano boasts a massive net worth of $200 million. A good portion of that wealth came from his time on Everybody Loves Raymond. As such, it was an impressive run for Romano over the course of his nine seasons on the hit show.

It is unknown just how much Romano made from his first four seasons of the show. However, some estimates put the salary around $300,000 per episode. That means over four seasons, Romano made $30 million for his work.

As the show gained in popularity, Romano's salary increased with it, even when the rest of his cast mates had to protest to be paid what they were worth. Romano's new salary for each episode of seasons five through seven brought in a cool $800,000. This brings his grand total for the three seasons to $57 million.

For the last two seasons, Romano became the highest-paid sitcom actor of that time when he was paid $1.75 million per episode. That means that Romano made $40 million and $28 million for Seasons Eight and Nine, respectively.

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That grand total from just Everybody Loves Raymond alone is $155 million. Not too shabby for a show that was written based loosely on Romano's life.

However, this huge payday almost destroyed Romano's career given the stress that came with making the big bucks. But, what may make up for that is the fact that Romano is still making money off the show today in royalties as well.

How Much Does Ray Romano Make In Royalties Today?

Romano has no desire to return to sitcom television during his career. Given how much money he made from Everybody Loves Raymond there is no reason that Romano needs to. This especially has to do with the fact that he continues to receive money from his hard work nearly three decades ago in the form of royalties.

Because of this, as long as the show continues to be purchased for syndication, Romano earns a passive income that is worth millions of dollars per residual cycle.

The latest network to pick up Everybody Loves Raymond is TV Land. Currently, Romano is making $18 million per year for the sitcom with "the bulk of his annual earnings coming from syndication of the long-running CBS sitcom."

While the $18 million seems like a large amount of money to make in royalties, it pales in comparison to some of Romano's contemporaries who make more in their syndication deals than he does. However, that does not mean that Romano is in danger of being the poor house anytime soon, especially if he continues to earn that $18 million per year for years to come.

For his residual cycle, Jerry Seinfeld makes $400 million, which would explain why he is close to becoming a billionaire. More modest figures, such as $20 million per year, go to the cast of Friends.

Most surprising, however, comes from the fact that Charlie Sheen was making $100 million per year in residuals but made the decision to his "profit participation points for $27 million" in 2016.

Romano found a gold mine when he decided to move forward with a sitcom loosely based on his life. It was an exhausting process during the years when the show was produced but these days, the residuals make it all worth it.